What happens when two best friends take completely different paths—then end up changing the world in their own ways?
I’m joined by two inspiring guests this week—Puneet Pushkarna and Atul Temurnikar. We go back to their early days in Mumbai, sharing flats and figuring out life at HCL. Puneet ventured into Silicon Valley and became a serial tech entrepreneur and investor. Atul chose a different road—building a global education network from Singapore, with 50+ campuses across 12 countries.
We talk about risk, resilience, and what it really takes to start from scratch—whether you're building a startup or a school.
You’ll love this story of ambition, friendship, and doing the unexpected.
IN THIS EPISODE
(00:00) Think you're ready to be an entrepreneur? Here’s the test nobody talks about…
(01:30) Two best friends, one tiny Mumbai flat—and a lifetime of lessons
(04:00) Rejected by MBA schools, rescued by Silicon Valley?
(06:30) Why selling computers in the '90s meant demanding to meet the CEO
(08:00) The real reason their startup team avoided flashy offsites (hint: it's not money)
(10:30) What moving to Singapore in the '90s taught them about the future
(13:30) From “no clue” to building 50+ schools—how do you even start?
(17:00) What kids can now ask AI… and what it means for every parent
(22:00) Entrepreneurs, listen up: this is how you build trust inside your founding team
(27:30) The two invisible traits every great hire must have (and why most miss them)
Puneet Pushkarna
Puneet Pushkarna is a Senior Advisor at Everstone. Puneet is also a General Partner of Solmark, a private equity fund formed by a group of tech entrepreneurs. He also sits on the corporate boards of several companies and educational institutes including the IIM.
Prior to his current role, he was the President of Headstrong which got acquired by Genpact in 2011. Puneet was the co-founder of TechSpan, a Goldman Sachs backed design thinking and business solutions consulting organization and was also part of the founding team that helped grow HCL America into HCL Technologies. He is Chairman Emeritus of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Singapore Chapter, and is also a member of the Board of Trustees for TiE Global. Puneet holds a Master of Business administration from University of Buffalo and a Bachelor of Technology degree.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/puneetpushkarna/
Atul Temurnikar
Atul Temurnikar is a prominent member of the education industry in ASEAN, North & South Asia & Middle East. Now he serves as co-founding trustee and Executive Chairman of Singapore-based Global Schools Foundation (GSF), a not-for-profit organisation.
Mr Temurnikar is a staunch advocate of high-quality education that transcends socio-economic boundaries from Korea to Japan in the East, to Singapore to Malaysia in ASEAN and India and Middle East. His significant efforts in the education sector include as a member of the Schools Sub-committee of the National Integration Committee (NIC) set up by the Government of Singapore.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/atul-temurnikar/
Chandan Deep
Chandan Deep is the Vice President of Strategy and Operations on B Capital Group’s Platform team covering India and South East Asia. Chandan has a passion to build and operationalise businesses within the tech space and partners closely with founders of BCap’s portfolio companies to help them scale.
Prior to B Capital, Chandan launched and grew Twitter’s commercial operations in emerging markets for Asia Pacific as the company commenced it’s monetisation journey post IPO. She also spent several years in management consulting with Accenture and the Boston Consulting Group. A keen champion of women in tech, she seeks to actively mentors young professionals and has previously led Twitter’s women chapter in Asia and co-founded Connected Women, a leadership forum to bring together women across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Airbnb & Google.
ABOUT TiE Talks
TiE Talks brings to you leadership and venture-building lessons from founders, investors and experts in the TiE Singapore network, a vibrant ecosystem of Asian entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, and industry professionals.
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